The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution (52 page)

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Authors: Jonathan Eig

BOOK: The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

153
a total of $622,000 in income
: Bruce Crawford, Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology Finance Committee Report, October, 16, 1953, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM.
153
“to do the jobs on hand”
: Ibid.
154
pledging fifty thousand dollars
: Ibid.
154
“young, lusty and full of promise”
: Gregory Pincus to Frank Fremont-Smith, September 25, 1953, LOC.
155
metabolism of steroids
: “Synopsis of Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology Research Projects,” 1953–54, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM.
155
“new studies in reproduction control”
: “Minutes of the Tenth Annual Trustees Meeting of the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology,” June 12, 1954, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM.
155
in a letter to McCormick
: Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, February 13, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
155
“merely said he hoped I was still interested”
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, February 17, 1954, Armond Fields Collection, USC.
155
“As I became somewhat impatient”
: Ibid.
156
“I was mistaken”
: Ibid.
156
first human trials
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, November 13, 1953, Armond Fields Collection, USC.
157
“forget to take the medicine sometimes”
: Ibid.
158
“would be very difficult in this country”
: Gregory Pincus to Katharine Dexter McCormick, March 5, 1954, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
158
“somewhat elevated”
: Gregory Pincus to Al Raymond, January 26, 1954, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
158
desperate for better birth control
: Annette B. Ramirez de Arellano,
Colonialism, Catholicism, and Contraception
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983), p. 108.
159
“ovulating intelligent” women
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, October 21, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
160
average mother . . . had borne 6.8 children
: Reuben Hill, J. Mayone Stycos, and Kurt W. Black,
The Family and Population Control
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959), p. 13.
161
“determined not to have more children”
: Transcript of Edris Rice-Wray interview conducted by Ellen Chesler, undated, SSC.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

162
ten times as many children
: David M. Oshinsky,
Polio: An American Story
(Oxford, UK, and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 5.
163
six hundred thousand children
: Ibid., p. 199.
163
“The earth’s population will double”
: “There Won’t be Room to Breathe in 2023 If Birth-Death Rate Continues,”
Panama City News-Herald
, April 6, 1953.
164
one of the most densely populated countries
: “Population Control in Puerto Rico: The Formal and Informal Framework,”
Law and Contemporary Problems
25, no. 3 (1960), pp. 558–76.
164
more densely packed than the United States
: Ibid.
164
one in every ten residents
: “Flow of Puerto Ricans Here Fills Jobs, Poses Problems,”
New York Times
, February 23, 1953.
164
one hundred miles long
: “Puerto Rico Faces Two Big Problems,”
New York Times
, June 27, 1954.
165
only heightening the sense of crowding
: Ibid.
165
less than four
: P. K. Hatt,
Backgrounds of Human Fertility in Puerto Rico
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1952), p. 53, Table 37.
165
“So, two is enough”
: J. Mayone Stycos,
Family and Fertility in Puerto Rico
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1955), p. 160.
165
underway in Puerto Rico
: Ibid., p. 159.
166
“How could I enjoy it . . . ?”
: Ibid., pp. 163–64.
166
women . . . intentionally married men
: Ibid., p. 164.
167
birth control at some point
: Ibid., p. 217.
167
a return flight home on Monday
: Annette B. Ramirez de Arellano,
Colonialism, Catholicism, and Contraception
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983), p. 146.
167
would cost about six hundred dollars
: Ibid.
168
“imperils the whole society”
: Stycos,
Family and Fertility in Puerto Rico
, p. 255.
168
“ ‘but you won’t do both’ ”
: Transcript of Edris Rice-Wray interview conducted by Ellen Chesler, undated, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
169
They recommended a diaphragm
: Transcript of Edris Rice-Wray oral history by James Reed, March 1987, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
169
came as a revelation
: Transcript of Edris Rice-Wray interview conducted by Ellen Chesler, undated, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
169
“it wasn’t enough for me”
: Ibid.
169
to help the other women
: Ibid.
169
she moved with her children to San Juan
: Ibid.
170
“they are doing nothing about it”
: Edris Rice-Wray to William Vogt, December 10, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
170
“We have 160 clinics”
: Ibid.
171
“looking for anybody”
: Transcript of Edris Rice-Wray interview conducted by Ellen Chesler, undated, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
171
“Our great opportunity”
: Edris Rice-Wray to Gregory Pincus, March 6, 1954, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
172
Only five reported no side effects
: Memo titled “Pseudopregnancy Data,” June 15, 1954, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
172
“assemble a group of 50 women”
: Gregory Pincus to Dr. Manuel Fernández Fuster, October 19, 1954, LOC.
172
“at worst inconvenient”
: Gregory Pincus memo, November 1, 1954, John Rock Papers, CLM.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

175
Mercier said
: Tina Mercier, telephone interview conducted by the author, April 2013.
176
behind his back
: Dr. Enoch Callaway, telephone interview conducted by the author, March 2013.
177
one inmate beheaded another
: “12-State Alarm for Worcester Mental Patient Who Axed Inmate,”
Lowell Sun
, July 22, 1943.
177
“patients who have defeated our best efforts”
: Enoch Callaway,
Asylum: A Mid-Century Madhouse and Its Lessons about Our Mentally Ill Today
(Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007), p. 6.
178
“defecating and urinating”
: Ibid., p. 9.
178
pulling hair in frustration
: Ibid., p. 8.
178
“I could not help imagining”
: Ibid., p. 9.
178
“would never think of doing these days”
: Dr. Enoch Callaway, telephone interview conducted by the author, March 2013.
179
“[W]e wish to inform the directors”
: Oscar Resnick to Gregory Pincus, undated, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
180
to cure men of homosexuality
: Andrea Tone, ed.,
Controlling Reproduction
(Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2001), p. 220.
180
“were just as psychotic”
: “Field Study with Enovid as a Contraceptive Agent,” ERW,
Proceedings of a Symposium on 19-Nor Progestational Steroids
, 118, Searle Research Laboratories, January 23, 1957.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

181
it made him uncomfortable
: Rachel Achenbach, interview conducted by the author, October 2011.
181
hormone for prolonged stretches
: Loretta McLaughlin,
The Pill, John Rock, and The Church: The Biography of a Revolution
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1982), p. 111.
182
“very realistic about medical work”
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, July 19, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
182
Pincus and Rock refused
: Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner,
The Fertility Doctor: John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution
(Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 158.
182
“an abstract research thing”
: Ibid., p. 159.
182
“What has happened to you . . . ?”
: Margaret Sanger to Abraham Stone, March 2, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
184
“
pitifully little that was of practical value”
: Ibid., p. 169.
184
keynote speaker was Catholic?
: Winfield Best to John Rock, March 9, 1954, John Rock Papers, CLM.
184
“importance of the world population increase”
: John Rock to Winfield Best, March 11, 1954, John Rock Papers, CLM.
186
“Two big steps that women must take”
: David Halberstam,
The Fifties
(New York: Villard Books, 1993), p. 591.
186
wash the dishes and emerge “utterly desirable”
: Marlene Dietrich, “How to Be Loved,”
Ladies’ Home Journal
, January 1954.
186
“learn to live and work together”
: “Listen, Marlene!”
Ladies’ Home Journal
, April 1954.
187
behind the scenes on political campaigns
: Joanne Meyerowitz, ed.,
Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945–1960
(Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1994), p. 250.
187
“end of the old controversy”
: James R. Petersen,
The Century of Sex: Playboy’s History of the Sexual Revolution, 1900–1999
(New York: Grove Press, 1999), p. 233.
188
“Sex is something I really don’t understand”
: J. D. Salinger,
The Catcher in the Rye
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1951), pp. 63–64.
188
“wearing out britches from the inside”
: Ibid., p. 240.
188
having an affair with a nurse
: Gay Talese,
Thy Neighbor’s Wife
(New York: Doubleday, 1980), p. 50.
188
phone call from the chancellery
: Ibid., p. 72.
189
Playboy
was the fastest growing magazine in America
: Ibid., p. 73.
189
“develop a method for inhibition”
: Gregory Pincus to Margaret Sanger, March 31, 1954, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.

CHAPTER TWENTY

190
shaken but not hurt
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, February 1, 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
190
hitched a ride to Boston
: Ibid.
190
maid stood by to fetch drinks
: Laura Pincus Bernard, interview conducted by the author, October 2011.
191
refused to supply the chemical
: Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, April 22, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
191
did not yet understand how or why
: Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner,
The Fertility Doctor: John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution
(Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 170.
191
“throws grave doubt”
: Al Raymond to Gregory Pincus, January 3, 1955, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
192
“will send it to you unlabeled”
: Ibid.
192
“didn’t want to be bothered with menstruals”
: Transcript of Anne Merrill interview conducted by Leon Speroff, May 2007.
193
participate as part of their studies
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, February 1, 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
194
Laura was startled and charmed
: Laura Pincus Bernard, interview conducted by the author, October 2011; David Halberstam,
The Fifties
(New York: Villard Books, 1993), p. 604.
194
seeing patients and conducting experiments
: Armond Fields,
Katharine Dexter McCormick: Pioneer for Women’s Rights
(Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003), p. 268.
194
confident enough to send Pincus a check
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Bruce Crawford, January 5, 1955, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM.
194
in addition to the $20,000
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Hudson Hoagland, August 13, 1954, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM.
195
“for lack of funds”
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Bruce Crawford, January 5, 1955, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM.
195
food supplies might falter
: “60,000,000 Buyers to Enter Market,”
New York Times
, March 15, 1955.
196
“Babies, Babies, Babies—4,000,000 Problems”
: “Washington: Babies,
Babies, Babies—4,000,000 Problems,”
New York Times
, February 27, 1955.
197
“meeting the needs of the people”
: “San Juan Talks Open on Birth Control Theme Held Key to Caribbean Problems,”
New York Times
, May 13, 1955.
198
“I wouldn’t have your job for anything”
: “The Plight of the Young Mother,”
Ladies’ Home Journal
, February 1956, p. 107.
198
“if you call that a vacation”
: Ibid.
199
“very quietly and privately”
: “Scientists Near Goal in Finding Simple Birth Control Method,”
Middleboro Daily News
(Kentucky), July 14, 1955.
199
project-by-project basis
: Ellen Chesler,
Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), p. 437.
199
Conference of the International Planned Parenthood Federation
: Ibid.
200
“I do wish the field tests”
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, February 1, 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.

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